I found a couple big used bandsaws for sale locally and am having trouble deciding which one to get. Both look like good models and both are about the same price (prices are firm).

Has anyone had any problems with either one of these exact models? The Grizzly has 12” resaw and a motor brake whereas the Rikon has huge 18” resaw capacity and a manual foot brake but I’m not sure how fast the Rikon’s foot brake stops the blade. From what I can find, both are good saws and should be a huge upgrade over the 14” bandsaw that I bought used last summer.

Any likes or dislikes for either of these models? I’m not interested in any other model; I’m just looking at these two because they’re used. Thanks!

With mid-size bandsaws capacity is usually king. The Rikon has more horsepower and significantly more resaw capacity as well as weighing more, table size is essentially the same. The table height is lower on the Rikon which is expected for a tall resaw type bandsaw but it is less conducive to general contour cutting unless you are rather short. The weak point of all Rikon bandsaws is their guides are finicky but it isn’t like the Grizzly has the most user friendly guides either. As for brakes I find that foot brakes are far more useful then motor brakes on bandsaws. They allow you to cut power and stop the blade without ever removing your hands from the stock and allow you to do this from three sides of the saw where you have to be behind and to the left of the stock to hit the off switch on a bandsaw. The best foot brakes will stop the blade MUCH faster than a motor brake (the heavy series of Centauro built saws (Mini-max) will stop the blade in less than one revolution of the wheel) but the majority of Asian saws aren’t quit as good, the two Rikon “professional” saws are better than the average Asian foot brake (Grizzly foot brakes are among the slowest I have used, they are actually slower than a motor brake). So the brake is also firmly in the Rikon camp for me.

Assuming age and condition are similar I would go with the Rikon, I would expect it to be roughly 1/3 more expensive than the Grizzly in the used market. However, if you plan to use the saw as a general purpose saw where you will do as much contour cutting as resawing and/or plan to change the blade often I would suggest the Grizzly might make a better choice, especially since it should be significantly less money and this may be the case since if you planned for this to be a dedicated resaw machine you probably wouldn’t even be considering the this Grizzly with this Rikon available.

Thanks for the feedback, guys! I was thinking I would mostly do curves with the smaller bandsaw but now I’m thinking I could also make some pretty big bandsaw boxes with the Rikon. AHuxley, thanks for all the extra info on brakes.

After reading the WOOD Magazine review it seems like I can’t really go too wrong with either saw. FWW also had an article where the same Grizzly saw took top honors but they didn’t have the 10-346 in the roundup (instead they had the 10-345, which seems to have a smaller motor, table, no brake, and may be lower-spec’d in other areas as well). Both magazines and AHuxley noted finicky blade guide adjustments on the Rikon saws though.

I like my Grizzly planer just fine, but I never thought I’d see multiple magazines rate a Grizzly tool “Best Overall” over other, more expensive/premium, brands. It seems like it would be a mistake to overlook that if I don’t have any immediate need for 18” of resaw. Then again, if I’m only getting 12” resaw it seems like I could also step down to one of the higher-end 14” bandsaws since I don’t think throat capacity will be an issue for me anytime soon.

Given I can get both for the same price, I’m slightly leaning toward the Rikon because of the larger resaw capacity and the foot-activated brake, now that it seems more practical than the pushbutton-activated motor brake. The finicky guides have me a little concerned but I’ll check youtube to see if there’s some trick to it.